The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for diluting or mixing a specimen or concentrate with a diluent or carrier and substantially simultaneously dispensing the mixture.
In a large number of clinical and analytical techniques employed for example in hospitals, laboratories and the like, it is often necessary to blend or mix a specimen or concentrate with a diluent or carrier. For example, the diluent or carrier may be merely intended to permit proper analysis of the specimen, for example, by extending its effective volume during testing. In other situations, the diluent or carrier may actually interact with the specimen or concentrate in order to condition it for subsequent analysis, evaluation or even for use in medical treatment or the like. Such operations are commonly carried out by means of separate blending and dispensing apparatus or even combined devices where the specimen or concentrate may be blended into the diluent or carrier and subsequently dispensed at a selected rate.
Such techniques have been found to be quite suitable, particularly where the time differential between initial dilution or intermixing of the concentrate and diluent on the one hand and its delivery or dispensation is not critical. However, in a number of applications, it is essential that dispensation of the combined concentrate and diluent occur substantially simultaneously with their intermixing. For example, in many applications, the diluent may react with or otherwise commence conditioning of the concentrate as soon as they come in contact with each other. For applications of this type, it is particularly important that the mixture be dispensed substantially at the same time that it is formed so that further processing is unaffected by initial reaction or conditioning taking place between the concentrate and the diluent. Merely as examples and not to limit the invention, such requirements occur commonly for example in the fields of bioluminescence and chemiluminescence as well as in radioactive immuno assay techniques commonly employed by clinical hospitals.
In order to meet such requirements, relatively complex apparatus and techniques have been employed to assure that mixtures of specimens and diluents are dispensed or available for further processing at substantially the same time they are intermixed. The relative complexity and difficulty of employing such apparatus and techniques has tended to limit their use and also to cause an undesirable delay in many applications where substantially simultaneous dilution and dispensation are required. The use of such apparatus and techniques is even more complex and time consuming when it is necessary to use different materials as one of the dilution components. In such an event, it is commonly necessary to clean substantial portions of the equipment between tests, experiments, etc.
Accordingly, there has been found to remain a need for an efficient method and apparatus for simultaneously diluting and dispensing a combination of a specimen or concentrate and a diluent or carrier.